The balanced scorecard is a management concept that has been so thoroughly boiled down to its essence that it no longer provides much application guidance. As a result, many of the best practices of the balanced scorecard are widely misunderstood. As much an art as a science, the balanced scorecard is a living process that must be adaptive to constantly changing external forces and internal course corrections. You learn as you go. Below are a few guiding principles that will help you along the way.